Do you guys know what a Fifth Week is? Well, normally, comics ship on a four week schedule, as per usual with a month. But sometimes, months have five Wednesdays… And that fifth Wednesday functions for comics publishers in a similar way to how Labor Day functions for the movie business: meaning, it’s a bit of a wasteland. Still, there’s a bunch of good comics coming out, though this is also a good week to save your change for Holiday presents. Here’s the best of what IS coming out:

Marvel is actually treating this week as business as usual. Though there’s nothing EVENT coming out (which is probably a good thing), there’s still a few of their best books hitting the stands. DAREDEVIL #6, which continues to be as spectacular as it was half a year ago, no mean feat. Seriously, this is the best looking – and one of the best written – books on the stands.

Also from Marvel? FF#12, which now spins off from the newly renumbered Fantastic Four, and as of last week’s anniversary issue has kind of become essential reading. Here, it’s a bunch of super powered kids versus Doctor Doom, and that’s never a bad read. Also surprisingly essential? WOLVERINE #19, which is teaming Logan up with an intelligent Gorilla, and the fattest ninja ever to battle dragons in the center of the Earth. It’s actually even better than that description can attest.

Over at DC, choices are sparse – though you do get the rebooted THUNDER AGENTS VOL 2 #1 by Nick Spencer, which was intriguing in its initial run, dealing with superheroes on borrowed time who keep betraying each other at every turn. Vertigo, meanwhile, has FABLES #111 – always reliable – and SPACEMAN #2, continuing Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s post-apocalypse. I liked the first issue, and think it’ll probably only get richer from there, so we’ll see.

There’s also a few choice non-Big Two items this week, led by ANGEL & FAITH #4 and SKULLKICKERS #12. The former continues a fabulous, witty, and easily accessible run on the Whedon created characters by Christos Gage. The latter is a stand-alone “Tavern Tales” issue, and though it’s (mostly) not by the regular team, is still laugh out loud funny.

Oh, and also? ARCHIE #627, which is the first part of an Archie/KISS cross-over by the delightful Alex Segura. When did Archie titles become essential reading again? Anyway, this should be fun, so I’m picking it up.

And that’s it! What are you looking forward to while you continue the slow Tryptophan recovery, fans?